USE YOUR ILLUSION, slash

five

     It's the first night of tour in Modesto, California. The show starts in an hour. Izzy, Steven, Duff, Slash, and Danielle hangout backstage. The only person missing is Axl.
     "The show starts in an hour, where's Axl?" Danielle has her arms crossed and legs propped up on a box.
     "Axl's always late," Steven looks up.
     "Late to his own show?" She scoffs.
     "Yeah," Steven chuckles. Both Slash and Duff give each other a small glance at one another. Izzy is minding his own business doing whatever he's doing.
     "Interesting," Danielle furrows her eyebrows at the piece of information the drummer gave her. She spaces out, thinking about nothing in particular, except maybe a little thought about missing home. Not the people there, just the familiarity. Steven watches her. Admires her. Duff nudges Slash and then motions toward Steven. The two silently laugh at Steven's lovestruck expression. Except Slash less than Duff.
      "Might as well just kiss her," Duff chimes. Steven's expression drops and he looks away from Danielle. Danielle comes back to now.
      "What're you talking about? I don't wanna kiss anyone," Steven's face scrunches up. Danielle looks back and forth between everyone. She could see Steven watching her when she was zoned out, yet she didn't think anything of it. She thought maybe he was just curious about her. Slash watches. He has a blank expression, his smile from before, gone.
     "Uh huh," Duff smirks and leans back in his chair.

     TEN MINUTES BEFORE SHOWTIME.

     "Axl's still not here?" The band's manager pokes his head in.
     "Haven't seen him," Slash shrugs. Their manager huffs and walks off. Steven pulls out his pack of cigarettes he's had stashed away in his jacket pocket. He lights it. Slash sticks his hand out, Steven points the box at him, Slash takes a stick out and lights it with the light in his pocket. Duff gets up and goes to the other side of the room, grabbing two cases of beers and setting them on the table in front of everyone. Izzy is first to grab one, then Steven, then Slash, then Duff.
     "You don't want one?" Slash grabs the bottle opener and opens his beer, immediately he brings the bottle to his lips.
    "I don't really drink," Danielle shrugs and crosses her arms over her body.
    "Okay," he shrugs and chugs his beer due to the chants coming from Izzy and Duff.
    "Chug! Chug! Chug!" The two repeat. He finishes it.
    "Gimme another," Slash's slightly out of breath and holds his hand out, Steven hands him another beer. Slash opens it and begins chugging again. The chants from Izzy and Duff continue until most of the two cases are gone. Among the group, three bottles belonged do Steven, two belonged to Duff, six to Izzy, and eleven total to Slash. Slash tries to reach for another, but Danielle grabs his arm.
     "What're you doing?" His words are slurred.
     "You don't need to drink anymore, I have no idea how you haven't passed out," Danielle scoffs. The show was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago.
      "I made a bet that I could drink all the beers before Axl gets here," He furrows his eyebrows and continues to try to reach for another bottle.
      "Who'd you make that bet with?" She pushes the case further away.
      "Myself," He says. Axl walks into the room, leisurely. As if he isn't late. He grabs one of the beers and opens it.
"Finally," Danielle mutters. Axl hears her. He looks at her, stopping himself from taking another sip of the beer.
"This is my show, sweetheart. Not yours, you're just tagging along. Go home if it bothers you that much," Axl snaps at her. Slash slouches in his seat, he isn't really paying attention to the conversation going on. Danielle isn't sure how to respond. She tucks her hair behind her ears.

The band is on stage and the show is finally about to start. Danielle's in the front row, she managed to push through people to get up there. The first song on the set list; 'Welcome to the Jungle'. Slash begins it. He accidentally messes it up a little, but corrects it almost immediately. Axl does his scream at the beginning of every performance of the song, the crowd begins to jump and get excited.
"Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games!" Axl begins. As the song goes on, Slash continuously messes up his parts, but leaves them as there's no time to correct them.
"What's up with Slash, man?" A tall guy, maybe a year or two older than Danielle, beside her asks the guy beside him. Danielle shifts her focus to Slash, he's drenched in sweat.
"On something for sure," His friend says. Danielle wants to butt into the conversation, but she decides against it.

The last song in the setlist comes, 'Rocket Queen'. Slash looks as if he's about to pass out, and the guys beside Danielle have been talking shit the entire show. Axl runs across the stage, singing. In between sets, Duff has been making Slash drink a ton of water because he's thrown up twice tonight. Danielle's focus has been on him all night, and she isn't planning on removing it. Though his focus, has been everywhere. Her, his playing, trying to stay focused in general, the other members, everything.
"Find a better guitarist!" One of the guys yells out. This catches Slash's attention, his heart beat begins to rise out of embarrassment and he starts trying to play better, only resulting in him playing worse. Feedback starts coming from the amps, creating an ear piercing noise. Their crew comes out from the side of the stage to help fix the feedback and other conflicting things. Slash continues to try to play, even though the rest of the band has stopped. Duff makes his way over to Slash.
"Hey, man, stop. Do you want us to stop the show?" He asks, genuinely.
"No, no no no. We aren't stopping the show," Slash shakes his head. Danielle watches them talk, she furrows her eyebrows, worried, but she can't do anything to help.
"Not even a little break?" Duff clears his throat.
"This is the little break, them fixing this shit," he motions to the crew and the amps.
"Fine," Duff walks back to the other side of the stage. The crew finishes fixing the issues and gives the band a thumbs up. Slash walks over to the mic.
"I apologize, everyone. We'll get back to the show now," He walks back to his spot and Axl continues the song from where they left off.
"Here I am, and you're a rocket queen!" Axl sings. The guy next to Danielle is flailing his arms around, singing along, which only causes his drink to be dumped on her. It almost seems purposeful. Danielle squeezes her eyes shut to prevent the drink from getting in her eyes and she wipes her face.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" She hits the guys arm. Slash watches as he plays.
"Don't touch me, bitch," He aggressively shoves her. Within seconds, Slash rips his guitar off of himself, he trips over a couple of cables, but then jumps off the stage, getting right up against the gate.
"Don't fucking shove her!" He points his finger directly in the guy's face, his words still slurred. He wants to punch the guy, but he knows he'll get into worse trouble. Danielle watches, trying to process what's going on.
"You gotta chill, man," the guy tells him.
"Don't tell me to chill, you need to chill, you shoved her! For what? For hitting your arm? You pushed her into a group of like five other people! You're a dick, man," Slash glances at Danielle.
"At least I'm not some druggie alcoholic that can't play guitar for shit!" The guy instigates. Slash decks him with no hesitation. The band is just standing on stage watching. Security runs over to where Slash was and grabs him, pulling him away from the audience. Danielle climbs over the gate and follows them.
"She's a fucking groupie," The guy tells his friend, blood drips from his nose to his upper lip. He wipes it.

"What the fuck was that?" Axl has an angry expression molded onto his face, "actually don't answer that. You just wanted to show off to your little girlfriend," He uses a baby voice. Danielle walks in. Duff, Steven, and Izzy stand back and watch.
"Go fuck yourself," Slash rubs his forehead.

    The rest of the band is in the tour bus, while Slash and Danielle decided to stay in a motel for the night. The deal is that they have to be ready to be on the road again by nine tomorrow morning.. Slash and Danielle walk into their room, Danielle had to help him the entire way so he didn't fall.
    "Now go to sleep," she walks him to the bed.
    "Ok, don't need to tell me twice," he climbs into the bed and closes his eyes. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. Danielle makes sure the room is locked before going to sleep in the chair that sits in the corner of the room.